Hearing aids are a common piece of technology for those who are experiencing hearing loss. Their purpose is to amplify the sounds around the user, processing them and playing them back through a speaker that is often deeper in the user’s ear canal. It’s often made up of several components, like a microphone and speaker. It’s surrounded by a hard casing and, depending on the style of hearing aid, might fit into the user’s ear canal or hook around their ear.

There are a few different types of hearing aids, but they all work the same; they amplify the noise around the user and play it back louder and deeper in the user’s ear so they can hear it clearly. Some can come with unique features, such as having Bluetooth connectivity or swappable profiles, but even the most basic hearing aid serves its purpose of amplifying sound and allowing the user to hear it clearly.

To better understand why hearing aids are so vital to those experiencing hearing loss, consider learning more about how they improve your ability to hear and other benefits of these devices.

How do hearing aids improve hearing?

Hearing loss is defined by the loss of your ability to hear. It can happen at different degrees, and its severity will depend on many factors, such as the underlying condition that’s causing it. Hearing aids provide many different advantages through its amplification, such as the following:

  • Being able to understand conversations with more than one speaker without stressing yourself to comprehend what they’re saying
  • Ability to hear quiet noises without straining yourself to listen
  • Differentiating background sounds and conversations from who or what you’re listening to

As you can see, hearing loss isn’t just about a reduction in volume. In some cases, hearing loss can cause someone to have difficulty differentiating between two different speakers, and they might also find it challenging to filter out background noises.

Different hearing aid styles

Hearing aids come in many different shapes and sizes, each offering their own advantages that can make them easily fit the user’s needs. Your audiologist will typically explain each type and go through their advantages with you, but here’s some information to help you understand how hearing aids can improve your hearing.

If you’re concerned about the volume of your hearing aids due to your severe hearing loss, then a powerful behind-the-ear unit might be more suitable for your needs. These differ slightly from other hearing aids because they’re larger, meaning they have more room for additional hardware that can provide louder amplification. They also tend to go deeper into the ear canal due to the small tube that is used to carry sound from the hearing aid unit to your ear.

However, if you’re more concerned about having a discrete or smaller hearing aid, then an in-the-ear or in-the-canal hearing aid might be more suitable for your needs. They provide a similar level of amplification but typically come with fewer features due to their smaller size. However, as hearing aid technology improves and hearing aids become more advanced, you can expect that even smaller hearing aids will match larger ones in terms of amplification and other features.

What else can hearing aids improve?

It goes without saying that hearing aids can improve your hearing, but it’s also important to learn about the other advantages they can offer to those with hearing loss.

For starters, hearing loss can mean you’ll have a hard time trying to balance yourself when getting off the ground or waking up from the bed. Your ears play a vital role in your balance system, and if it remains untreated, you may experience dizziness, difficulty walking in a straight line or vertigo.

Hearing aids can also help improve your social life since you’ll be more inclined to attend social gatherings and have conversations with others. Many people with hearing loss find that it’s difficult to speak to others without using hearing aids because they need to ask the other party to repeat what they said many times, With hearing aids, you can regain control over your social life and participate in more gatherings and meetings without feeling alienated.

For more information or to speak with an experienced audiologist, don’t hesitate to contact Brentwood Hearing Center at (615) 866-0431 for more information. We’re more than happy to offer assistance and book a consultation for you with one of our skilled audiologists.